Reply #44: Networks fall in Katrina's wake [View All]

[steve2470]

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,16444398%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

Correspondents in Washington
AUGUST 31, 2005
TELEPHONE companies have struggled to restore service and measure the damage to their networks in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina cut power and triggered severe flooding.

Residents reported trouble making and receiving calls throughout the day, and many turned to the internet and text messaging to try and reach relatives and friends.

"It's spotty at best," Josh Britton, a student at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge said. With mobile phones, "a lot of times you'll have to try for several minutes to make an outgoing call ... In several of the parishes in southeast Louisiana there's virtually zero communication capability."

A spokesman for BellSouth, the largest local telephone company in the region, said while the company estimated about 53,000 lines were out in the two states, the actual numbers were likely to be higher.

<snip>